In recently years, the explosion of mobile device uses has created a high demand for portable batteries. Not only portable, the batteries have to be small and light for users' convenience. Lithium-ion batteries meet all of these requirements. Thus, they are currently the preferred battery type for all mobile devices. Furthermore, since they are small, many cells of battery can be packed together to provide a large capacity battery, and used for all types of vehicles. Electric vehicles have slowly replaced hybrid vehicles, which are half gasoline, half electric, which, in turn, have slowly replaced the traditional gasoline-only vehicles. The battery production industry has now grown to more than $83 billion annually.
As lithium-ion batteries are widely used, some of the uses are for mission critical purposes, in which battery failure has devastating consequences. For examples, an ambulance does not start due to its battery failure, or a pace maker suddenly stops because of its battery failure, or on a freezing day a user cannot restart his car to go home. Thus, people or mechanic shops need a way to check or test batteries for failure or damages, and detect a potential failure to replace dead or decayed batteries before an emergency need arises.
The need for battery tester does not arise only occasionally to check for failure but also every time a user wants to recharge his batteries because batteries, especially lithium-ion, are known to decay over time. The lithium-ion battery works on ion movement between the positive and negative electrodes. In theory such a mechanism should work forever, but cycling, elevated temperature and aging decrease the performance over time. Manufacturers take a conservative approach and specify the life of Li-ion in most consumer products as being between 300 and 500 discharge/charge cycles.
Evaluating battery life on counting cycles is not conclusive because a discharge may vary in depth and there are no clearly defined standards of what constitutes a cycle. In lieu of cycle count, some device manufacturers suggest battery replacement on a date stamp, but this method does not take usage into account. A battery may fail within the allotted time due to heavy use or unfavorable temperature conditions; however, most packs last considerably longer than what the stamp indicates. Thus, it makes common and economic senses to test the batteries' health before one spends energy to recharge them. Furthermore, charging a battery having one or more bad cells may create certain health and safety risks in that the bad cell may emit harmful smoke and/or gases during the charging sequence. A user does not only test to throw out bad batteries and replace them with good and new ones. He also tests so he can confidently use a battery as long as it passes his tests, and save resources.
Battery chargers and testers are a crowded space. There are existing battery chargers and testers on the market. However, none of them provides a battery tester that can perform multiple tests to check the status of a battery, including max capacity, max resistance, and max current. Furthermore, few battery testers are equipped with a charger that can accommodate different battery sizes and capacities.
Most prior arts disclose external probes that are used to link the positive and negative terminals of the battery. Over time, the external probes can be damaged and become difficult for a user to connect and the analyzer to analyze accurately. Furthermore, the external probes provide no structural support for a sturdy and steady contact to the terminals of a battery.
As crowded as the battery tester and charger market, no charger provides a multitude of tests describing the internal health of a battery in one convenient device. Similarly, no tester provides a convenient charger in the same device.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a battery tester that perform multiple tests to check the status of a battery, and is equipped with a charger that can accommodate different battery sizes and capacities, especially when it is all in one compact embodiment.